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Patron Treasures

Formerly known as Patrons Monthly.
Why this change?

Welcome! Everyone can browse our Patron Treasures below. Click lesson titles for more info.

 

Why be a Patron?

The Feldenkrais Project's 50+ free lessons are a crowd-funded labor of love. If you believe, like we do, that Feldenkrais makes the world a better place, please join the Project as a Patron to support our work and access over 75 Patron Treasures lessons below, plus other Patrons-only lessons. You'll also get full access to our Deep Dive courses.

A Patron-level membership costs about what you'd pay to attend a single Feldenkrais or other movement class per month!

Join the Project as a Patron

Our annual costs are typically over $25,000 for technology and our part-time staff – plus 50-100 hours of Nick's time each month – as we improve this site, spread the word about our vision, and add new lessons and features to our industry-leading resources. Your support really matters!

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New for Patrons

31m

Essence for “Experts”: Whole Body Arms (31m, Patrons)

A review version of this lesson. Organize action from your head, spine, and tail, and refresh their functional relationships with your shoulders. Then it's time for the arms: twist, roll, reach, and circle them while sustaining whole body awareness.
63m

Long Belly, Strong Back: Expanded Workshop Version (Patrons)

A 3-minute talk introduces the workshop. Then, after a few explorations in standing, you'll lie down and dive into quiet, precise movements of your pubic bone, sternum, scapulas, and sitbones designed to organize your spine and hips for powerful action and easier uprightness. Late in the lesson, juxtapose your new skills with common movement habits that diminish our abilities and confidence: do you press the ground or lift up and through? Are your hips in front of the action or behind it? The more clearly you sense these differences in all that you do, the better life gets.
73m

Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 1 (Patrons)

In this workshop Nick shares practical tips, tools, and Feldenkrais lessons to improve your balance. He dispels common misunderstandings and highlights principles of physics and learning you can sense and practice on your own.

Average Challenge   back-lying  standing 
September 14, 2022
 
63m

Workshop: Balance Myths, Facts, and Practice, Part 2 (Patrons)

In this workshop Nick shares practical tips, tools, and Feldenkrais lessons to improve your balance. He dispels common misunderstandings and highlights principles of physics and learning you can sense and practice on your own. Part one of the workshop is here.

Average Challenge   side-lying  standing 
September 14, 2022
 
60m

The Tongue and the Spine (Patrons)

Chair-seated and back-lying. Dive deeper into the many connections between the eyes, jaw, tongue, neck, shoulders, spine, and breath by reviewing and expanding ATM techniques from our previous jaw lessons. See the Context notes for recommended study order for these lessons.

Average Challenge   chair-sitting  back-lying 
September 6, 2022
 
58m

Softening the Jaw, Shoulders, and Chest (Patrons)

Back-lying and side-lying. Develops the simplest jaw movements we’ve explored by linking them to movements of the spine and shoulders, and to softening and turning the torso. Can be very helpful for TMJ difficulties. See the Context notes for recommended study order for our jaw lessons.

Most Accessible  back-lying  side-lying 
August 28, 2022
 
57m

“Beard Pull” Pecking, with Chanukia (Patrons)

Back-lying, exploring pecking movements to create ease, clarity, and better carriage of the head, neck, shoulders, and spine. Uses the playful image of having a chin beard that an imaginary friend gently pulls toward the ceiling. Movements from the Chanukia lesson are used to develop possibilities.

More Challenging  back-lying 
June 24, 2022
 
60m

Arms Like a Skeleton, Integrating the Neck, Jaw, and Eyes (Patrons)

Back-lying. Find new options for ease in your neck, jaw, and eyes in relationship to movements of your shoulders and chest. Great for reducing tension and improving posture, particularly carriage of the head, neck, and shoulders.

Average Challenge   back-lying 
April 7, 2022
 
37m

Calming Your Nervous System, Integrating Hands and Eyes (37m)

See photos below the lesson notes which illustrate the 2-minute introduction to this lesson’s particular hand movement. Back-lying, using a “bell hand” movement to differentiate and integrate the hands, eyes, and breath. This lesson is a powerful tool for self-regulation and reorganization, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and shifting us away from “fight or flight” and toward “rest and digest”.

Most Accessible  back-lying 
February 6, 2022
 
60m

Getting Free with a Bell Hand (Patrons)

Mostly in a “three-quarters prone” position (halfway between side-lying and front-lying). Learn to use a gently pulsing “bell hand” to calm and regulate your nervous system, and to help you organize larger, more demanding movements with greater freedom and skill. See the lesson notes for a recommended prerequisite lesson.

More Challenging  front-lying  side-lying  transitioning or rolling 
January 12, 2022
 
60m

Making Peace: Smooth Breath, Skillful Bias, Supple Chest (Patrons)

Back-lying. Recorded in a “Rest and Recharge” themed class, this workshop-style lesson weaves together three related ATM explorations designed to calm and restore your nervous system. Balance your breath, find and enjoy your primary spinal bias, and then unlock more suppleness in your ribs and shoulders by gently moving within unusual constraints.

Most Accessible  back-lying 
December 17, 2021
 
60m

Freeing the Shoulders by Rolling the Arms (Patrons)

Mostly back-lying, arms in a “letter T” position. Improving the function and mobility of the shoulders by connecting them more skillfully with the chest, spine, and head. Particular attention is given to the neck and to the spine between the shoulder blades.

Average Challenge   floor-sitting  back-lying 
December 6, 2021
 
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Deep Dives with Patron Treasures

To enjoy some of our Patron Treasures in larger learning contexts, try our Deep Dives, where we integrate Patrons-only content with other Feldenkrais Project lessons in specialized study sequences. Patrons have full access.

See Our Deep Dives

More Collections Just for Patrons

12 Lessons from Awareness Through Movement

Developed from Moshe Feldenkrais’s 1972 book, written to introduce his method to the world.

Legacy and Alternate Lessons

Some listeners prefer the classics. When a lesson is replaced or updated the original goes here.

8 Comments

  1. Nick Strauss-Klein on March 5, 2019 at 3:57 pm

    As you explore our Patron Treasures please leave comments and questions on the lesson pages – they build our community, improve our visibility on the web, and refine my teaching and which lessons I choose to add.

    You can also leave a comment right here to request lessons or topics of study.

    Reply
  2. Margit on March 24, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    I like lessons with a rolling part in them, they are so much fun! This lesson maked me especially aware of my Sternum and that I usually direct it “backwords”. I will pay attention to a more balanced direction (in the mid of backwards and forwards) of my Sternum after doing this lesson. Thank you Nick for sharing your Knowledge with us.

    Reply
  3. jean kirk on April 4, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    Rib basket and shoulder cloak lesson is great. Taught me a lot about being upright.

    Reply
  4. Helina Karvak on June 18, 2022 at 7:43 am

    Hi! I’m interested in voice as topic of study 🙂

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on June 20, 2022 at 12:00 pm

      That’s great – me too! My wife is a singer and I’ve wanted for years to develop my own ease in speaking. Lessons for the voice are on the back burner right now, but I think I’ll get to it!

      Reply
  5. Trudy J on May 2, 2024 at 3:56 am

    Hi Nick
    What pathway would you go down to help correct a scoliosis of the spine. I am unsure where to start. Thanks so much.
    Cheers Trudy

    Reply
    • Nick Strauss-Klein on May 2, 2024 at 10:12 am

      Most scoliosis is caused by patterns of action, movement habits we’ve unconsciously developed over the years that shorten our spines unnecessarily in asymmetrical ways. Lessons that bring awareness to your integrated use of your whole spine in your actions are great. Admittedly, this is basically all Feldenkrais lessons! A few ideas to try to answer your question more specifically:

      • – Try our Little Dip called Spinal Support
      • – Search our lessons for “spine” and follow your curiosity. You can filter by clicking “show advanced options,” or uncheck the “courses and video lessons” option if you just want to see specific lessons.
      • – Collections #2 and #4 are also really relevant.
      • – The Anti-Gravity Lesson (the finale of collection #2) can be very useful for some folks for scoliosis, especially if they’ve done a lot of Feldenkrais lessons like the ones above prior. Go very small and slow. You’re looking for the sense the that up-your-mat forces might naturally align your vertebrae, like how pushing a line of slightly disordered dominoes laying flat on a table can “straighten them out,” bringing their edges into full contact, if done with patience and precision.
      Reply
      • Trudy J on May 2, 2024 at 1:15 pm

        Fantastic response Nick. It’s funny. Whilst I waited for a response I I intuitivley just headed to start on collection #2 as I felt sure lessons for the spine would help but I am glad I asked anyway because I love your response. Thanks again!

        Reply

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